


Cuddles

by GreenDoritoz24



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Asexual Relationship, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Mom Zircon, Naked Cuddling, Showers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 12:52:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13570956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenDoritoz24/pseuds/GreenDoritoz24
Summary: Bad days can easily become ok days when your girlfriend is with you.





	Cuddles

This was the tenth time in the last half hour that Peridot – a small, blonde haired, bottle green-eyed, “doesn’t-get-out-of-the-house-enough”-white girl, wearing the most ridiculous round glasses that anyone could find in the shop – had slipped on the ice beneath her and the fourth time she had landed face first into the sludgy road just off the curb. On a good day, this walk would take her 20 minutes, tops, but today was decidedly not a good day; today was a very bad day. She had woken up to a stuffy nose, a bad throat and heavy limbs, but her technology professor believed in the “there is NO excuse to be out of class!” philosophy; she had taken an ice-ball to the face on the way to campus by some dumbass 12-year-olds who thought that giving her a nasty black eye was a good time, then she was late, with her clothes soaked from the ice cold rain that was practically freezing on contact with the ground; her phone hadn’t charged the night before and her laptop had broken, the buses decided that it was too icy to be running and, to top it all off, her girlfriend’s classes were on the other campus four miles away. Yes, today was not a good day at all; everything bad that could have happened, did happen.

The small girl jammed her key into the lock of her shared dormitory and, just her luck, the key snapped in the Yale, shutting her out of her shared dorm. Tears filled her bottle green eyes as she banged her head against the wooden door and her legs gave out beneath her. She let out a short, choked sob, which lead to another, and another, quickly developing into full on crying and she began thumping on the door in frustration; Peridot had started shivering from the icy cold water soaking through her clothes from both the 3 mile walk to college and the 3 mile walk back. As the girl dropped to the floor she had also managed to bust both her knees open, which were pooling blood onto the floor.  
Her (well-deserved) breakdown had caught the attention of her neighbours on the left side of her dorm, Belle and Yvette Circón, an engaged couple who were taking law classes together to hopefully start their own law firm. Their door opened and pastel blue hair with lovely golden-brown skin and a skinny frame popped out of the open door.  
“Peridot? What are you… What happened to you!?” Belle almost screeched, skidding down onto her own knees to be eye level with the slightly younger girl. Peridot rolled her head to the left, keeping it on the permanently locked door and her bloodshot, one black, still-crying eyes peering up into Belle’s ice blue ones; she raised her hand, still clutching tightly onto the broken jade key. Belle cooed in sympathy, running her hand through Peridot’s soaked locks.  
“Peri, why haven’t you called maintenance? They can fix this!” The pastel-haired woman asked, taking the distraught girl’s glasses off and rubbing the fog off them before sliding them back onto her face and subconsciously adjusting her own. Peridot took her phone out of her pocket and pressed the power button a few times with the screen facing Belle to show what she couldn’t tell. Her phone was completely and utterly dead.  
“I’ll get Yvette to call maintenance and get you a towel...” Belle explained before yelling to her fiancée.

“YVETTE! GET A TOWEL, A FIRST AID KIT, AND CALL MAINTENANCE!” The soon-to-be lawyer shouted into her dorm, waiting for a yelled reply.  
“WHY?” A slightly nasally voice asked back, clearly trying to compete with the TV playing an episode of NCIS.  
“BECAUSE, LITTLE PERI IS OUT HERE, DRIPPING WET, KNEES BUSTED OPEN AND HER KEY SNAPPED IN THE LOCK!” Belle practically growled back, putting an arm gently around the girl and pulling her wet form into her warm, dry body. Peridot blushed from being called “little Peri”; it had started as a joke but had slowly become a term of endearment. In less time than it took to say, “nice shorts”, Yvette was out of the dorm, a large blanket bundled in her pasty arms with a large first aid kit balance precariously on top and a tuft of golden blonde hair peeking over the pile. You could hear a voice behind the pile.  
“Yeah? You can get here in five minutes? That’s great! Thank you so much! See ya then!” Yvette dropped the blanket and first aid supplies to hang up on the maintenance guy. The woman behind the pile was shaped similarly to Belle, but instead of tanned skin and pastel hair, she was pasty with a blonde, scruffy mop for hair and sharp, chartreuse eyes behind round-rimmed glasses. She picked up the blanket and started rubbing Peridot’s drenched hair as she coaxed her to sit with her butt on the floor and knees to her chest. The wounds on her knees were only small; stress fractures in her skin from the cold air hitting them, the sharp drop to the floor being the straw to break the camel’s back. Belle had opened the kit and was slowly cleaning and putting plasters on the small wounds.

The five minutes came fast, and the first stroke of luck Peridot had all day came with it; both the maintenance guy and Garnet had come up to the trio, Garnet’s girlfriend wrapped up in the now soaked blanket, black eye, and bloody knees, looking freezing cold and sicker than before. When she caught sight of the small girl she ran to her as fast as she could and as soon as she was close enough Peridot snuggled her head into her lover’s lower stomach, rubbing her tears onto the band hoodie.  
“What happened Peri?” Garnet was short and sweet with her question, not beating around the bush with her miserable girlfriend.  
“Buses weren’t running... I’m sick… I was pelted with an i-ice ball… Pr’fessor Diamond wouldn’t let me leave early… I slipped on the ice...I got wet… my phone died… my laptop broke and my key busted in the lo-o-ock!” Peridot sobbed into Garnets stomach, crying over the shitty day and looking up into Garnet’s shades with her watery bottle-green eyes.  
“I’m here to fix that one!” The scruffy maintenance man laughed, on his free time he played his guitar in the hallways and park, he often wore a black shirt with a golden star, worn jeans and flip flops even though it was against company policy. Of all the things he could have pulled out of his toolbox, he pulled out a bobby pin, pair of needle nose pliers and a magnet, and quickly got to work.

A loud click caught Peridot’s attention as the key was slid out of the lock and the maintenance guy unlocked their dorm with the spare key.  
“There you go guys! One key-free lock and an open door! I’ll cut you a new key, Peridot, free of charge; I mean, this was just an unfortunate accident, you shouldn’t have to pay for it!” He smiled softly before picking up his tools and waving them off with an, “I’ll post the key though tomorrow morning!”, leaving the group to their evening.  
“We’ll let you two get inside, you must be freezing...” Belle mused before turning to her own dorm and dragging Yvette inside too.  
“Come on! What have I missed?!” The pastel-haired woman exclaimed as she dragged her fiancée inside. Peridot was still snuggled deep into Garnets stomach when she was gently pulled up to her feet, her converses squishing on the ground with excess water and sludge.  
“Let's get you out of those wet clothes and we can watch a movie hm?” Garnet suggested, running one large hand through the soaked mane of hair, those big green eyes looked up into her own.  
“Lilo And Stitch?” Peridot asked softly, knowing it was the film Garnet was likely to put on, after all, it was the best “bad day” movie.  
“Hm” Garnet chuckled and gave a gentle nod “Lilo and Stitch” she confirmed and managed to get the first smile of the day out of Peridot; small but sincere. Garnet pulled Peri into her side and walked her into their dorm. Garnet pushed the door closed with her hip. It locked with a satisfying click.

Peridot could not physically move once she had gotten into her dorm, sure she was wet through, cold and uncomfortable but her limbs just wouldn’t obey her commands, frozen solid from a mix of cold and plain old exhaustion; Garnet seemed to be a few steps ahead of her and was already trying to work her pullover hoodie off.  
“Arms up for me love.” Garnet softly commanded, the blonde was too physically and emotionally drained to fight her and just did as she was told, albeit a bit slower than she intended. The afro-haired woman frowned, her eyebrows creased and a look of concern flashed over her eyes, although Peridot could not see it through the thick shades; this behaviour was so unlike the small woman, whenever Garnet would try to mother her in the past, even small things like a “don’t stay up too late!” Peridot would fight back embarrassedly, often not listening to her girlfriend's advice and regretting it later, but right now, Peridot was just doing as she was told, no fighting back, no blushing, just an unusual amount of compliance.  
Garnet didn’t dwell on it for too long and set into motion, taking her girlfriend’s hoodie and shirt of in one fast motion and, miraculously, not disturbing her glasses beside a few water droplets. Peridots shorts were the next to go followed by her shoes, socks and her green alien underwear. Peridot was completely naked. The blonde's arms quickly came down to cover her petite chest, her body wasn’t particularly nice to look at, she was scrawny, at least 5 kilos underweight, there were a few ugly scars from falling off her scooter or bullies getting too vicious and she was generally just body conscious; her innocent eyes looked up into Garnets, looking for any sign of disgust or mockery; but Garnet stayed neutral, only a small, affectionate smile broke the intimidating visage.  
“You’re beautiful Peri, just the way you are.” Garnet dispelled any fears the scrawny girl had, to Garnet, Peridot was very easy on the eyes, just small and svelte enough to make her the perfect cuddle partner, her scars gave her skin an added layer of texture to feel and memorise and yes, she could do to gain some weight, but Garnet would never pressure her into eating more than she already was. To Garnet, Peridot was very beautiful in her own, “scraggy teen” way.  
Peridot was still shaking in her metaphorical boots out of both nerves and cold, this was the first time Garnet had properly seen her naked and she looked like a drowned rat. Garnet’s smile was not malicious or laced with any mockery, it was just how she was. Genuine.

Two large hands scooped up Peridot from her armpits and pulled her form into her own, moving her into the bathroom. Garnet sat her girlfriend onto the toilet seat and turned on the bath’s tap. Steam rose from the hot water as the woman put in the plug, watching the tub fill up. Peridot looked up, fidgeting on the closed toilet; her skin was so cold she couldn’t feel the freezing seat beneath her but yet, it still managed to make her uncomfortable. Garnet was in the process of taking off her own clothes as the tub was just starting to come up to a reasonable level for the blonde girl to warm up. Garnet was gorgeous, a perfect hourglass figure with smooth skin over rock-hard muscle, to put it simply, nothing like Peridot. The blonde was pulled into Garnet’s naked embrace and the tall woman lowered them both into the warm water, Peridot fitting snugly in Garnets lap.  
The air in the bathroom was soft and warm, much like a blanket just off the radiator, the water around them sloshed with tiny movements as rain pelted the petite, textured window just above the sink, the downpour of ferocious calm added another layer to the world around them as it muted all but the sharpest senses and dulled the frustration of the day.  
Garnet busied herself by slowly passing her hands over Peridot’s thighs, massaging the goose-flesh that had puckered up, that was trying to trap all of the girls body heat inside her with both of her thumbs. Peridot’s own hands were pressed onto the plastic of the tub in front of her groin, fingers playing with the adhesive ducks pressed firmly into the plastic; they were a good investment after Peridot had once slipped and dislocated her shoulder in the shower, resulting in an 8 hour long A&E trip at 1 AM with them both having classes in the next 7 hours. Peridot hummed with mirth as she recalled the event, rubbing the duck's umbrella with her fingertips.  
Garnet let out a tender sigh, running her arms back up to Peridot’s waist and wrapping them around; pulling her in for a deep, long cuddle.

The water's warmth had completely subsided when Garnet had finally pulled away from the embrace. They both stood up; the water around them making more soft, dripping noises which were music to Peridot’s ears. The blonde had zoned out, enjoying the peaceful air and gentle noises around her: rain, bath water, Garnet’s breathing, her own breathing, the towel coming off the radiator. With that, Peridot was broken out of her trance by said towel being wrapped around her shoulders and the already cooling damp being blotted off her skin by the soft, Egyptian cotton bath towel. As she was dried, the blonde had noticed she felt a whole lot lighter, her limbs weren’t as heavy, her skin was no longer painfully numb and the chill that coursed through her body was all long forgotten.  
Peridot passed the towel over to Garnet as she stepped out of the tub; letting the water on her feet dry naturally in the warm rooms. She watched her lover pat down her own body and step out of the bath, kicking the plug out of its hole in one fluid motion as she left.  
“Still up for Lilo And Stitch?” Garnet asked with a velvety smile as she guided Peridot into the kitchen, the small blonde gave an embarrassed nod; it was a childish need of hers, to watch an animated movie after a bad day, and she knew that as an adult she shouldn’t have that need, but, here they were; Garnet did not judge her one bit for it.

The kitchen was probably one of the least messy places in the entire dorm, everything had its place and they stayed there until it was required; in this case, all Garnet needed was a jug, milk, two cups, Nesquick powder (in chocolate of course) and canned squirty cream. The gentle, repetitive clinking of mugs filled the air, the metal cream can dragged across the counter and the sound of glass scraping across marble signaled the end of the preparations.  
Three spoonfuls of the powder found their way into both mugs, one just a cylindrical, royal blue and ruby red mug, besides the colouring, just a regular old mug; and the other, well the other was shaped like an alien’s head, lime green with black details and little white highlights on the eyes. The milk had been poured into the jug and was warming up in the microwave. Besides the sound of the rain and the barely working microwave, courtesy of the person who dumped it outside of B12 and Peridot’s brilliant tech skills, no other sound permeated the comfortable silence. Peridot thought, that if she listened just hard enough, she could probably hear Garnet’s heartbeat; the blonde slowly traced the patterns in the marble, smiling as she traced over one which looked so similar to her girlfriend’s sunglasses.  
A short, sharp ding, made Peridot almost jump out of her skin; her head snapped up and she watched Garnet pour the piping hot milk into both cups, being careful not to spill any on her naked body or the counter and stirring the powder into the milk and topping the alien mug with a short tower of canned squirty cream before popping it back into the fridge and carrying both mugs to the bedroom, letting Peridot follow behind.

The bedroom was cozy a nice 8×10 room that fit one, short double bed or two average singles inside, Garnet and Peridot had chose the former after they realised that one of the two singles just wasn’t being used. There was a small 15 inch television with an inbuilt DVD player about two feet from the foot of their bed, resting on a cheaply made, plastic barbecue table and a pair of handmade, once again, courtesy of the people at B12, bedside tables, made of parts of old pallets and a couple of nails, which Garnet’s mother had sanded down and repainted. Compared to the rest of the room, one half covered in alien posters the other completely bare besides one band poster, the sheets on the bed were elegant and expensive, a deep chocolate with a forest green accent, made from an exquisite Egyptian cotton-cashmere blend, Peridot would never let anyone know that they were in a thrift store for £5.  
The TV was clicked on and the mechanical sound of a DVD sliding into the player filled the room as Garnet laid down with both their hot chocolates in one large hand; Peridot quickly took the opportunity to lay down and snuggle under Garnet’s arm, still facing the television. Garnet reached over, placing the green mug onto Peridot’s side table and used her other hand to put her own mug down. The afro-haired woman pulled her arm around the much smaller woman and pulled her is as close as she physically could get, Peridot responded by absent-mindedly pulling the skin on Garnet’s collarbone into her mouth and softly sucking on it. The musically toned ding came from the TV and Peridot smiled.

It may have been, decidedly, not a good day, but, with Garnet by her side, it wasn’t too bad.


End file.
